Republicans Freak Out Over Major Election Loss

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast Summary: "Republicans Freak Out Over Major Election Loss"

Release Date: April 2, 2025

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Introduction

In the latest episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas delve into the significant defeat of MAGA Republicans in Wisconsin's Supreme Court race. The episode provides an in-depth analysis of the election's implications for the Republican Party, the influence of high-profile figures like Elon Musk, and the broader impact on American democracy.

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Election Outcome

The episode opens with the hosts announcing the decisive victory of Democratic-aligned pro-democracy candidate, Judge Susan Crawford, over the MAGA-backed candidate, Brad Schimmel. This win grants Democrats control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, a pivotal shift that could curb attempts at gerrymandering and potentially reduce Republican seats in Congress.

• Host/Commentator (00:00): "Judge Susan Crawford... went on to win that critical race in the vacant Supreme Court seat, tipping the scales of the Supreme Court so that the Democrats will have control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court."

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MAGA Republicans' Response

In response to their defeat, MAGA Republicans have been scrambling to attribute the loss to various factors, notably distancing themselves from Elon Musk and his financial contributions. The former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, appears on CNN attempting to shift blame away from Musk by mentioning other billionaires like George Soros, J.D. Pritzker, and Reid Hoffman.

• Scott Walker (03:40): "I don't think they spent on this. They didn't."

• Political Analyst (02:33): "It's a little Saul Linsky ish in the sense that you've got George Soros and J.D. Pritzker and Reid Hoffman... pointing and say, well wait a minute, he spent."

Despite these efforts, the hosts and guests highlight that Elon Musk's financial involvement far surpassed that of other donors, making it a central factor in the election dynamics.

• Host/Commentator (04:25): "Because Republicans are the working class party now, you need to have more people turn out... But you're not the working class. You're the party of the oligarchs."

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Role of Elon Musk

Elon Musk's extensive financial support for Brad Schimmel, including million-dollar donations and voter incentives, is scrutinized as a potential attempt to "buy" the Supreme Court seat. The hosts argue that Musk's influence represented an unprecedented level of oligarchic intervention in democratic processes.

• Host/Commentator (14:17): "Elon Musk spent $20 million. He paid people to sign petitions, he paid people to canvas, he did million dollar giveaways..."

• Elon Musk (14:56): "Whichever party controls the House... steers the course of Western civilization."

The podcast emphasizes that Musk's involvement was a clear attempt to sway the election outcome, which ultimately failed, signaling a rejection of oligarchic interference by Wisconsin voters.

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Insights from Political Analysts and Guests

The episode features various perspectives critiquing the MAGA Republican strategy and its reliance on high-profile donors. Scott Walker's portrayal of the loss as unrelated to Musk is countered by data indicating the overwhelming financial influence Musk had in the race.

• Host/Commentator (10:28): "George Soros has poured millions... well, why? Because the left wants to drive forward a radical agenda."

• Rachel Maddow (10:51): "George Soros... donated $2 million... compared to $19 million for Elon."

These insights highlight the disproportionate impact of Musk's contributions compared to other donors, undermining the MAGA Republicans' narrative.

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Reactions from Susan Crawford

Judge Susan Crawford's victory is celebrated as a triumph for democracy and judicial integrity. She condemns Elon Musk's attempts to influence the judicial system, emphasizing the importance of fair elections and unswayed courts.

• Judge Susan Crawford (07:21): "As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I'd be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin. And we won."

• Judge Susan Crawford (08:06): "Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy... Our courts are not for sale."

Her statements reinforce the podcast's theme of defending democratic values against oligarchic challenges.

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Commentary from Hakeem Jeffries

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appears on the podcast, extolling the election results as a rejection of both Donald Trump and Elon Musk. He underscores the weakening Republican brand and its implications for future elections.

• Hakeem Jeffries (12:55): "The voters rejected Donald Trump and they rejected Elon Musk and they rejected the rapidly deteriorating Republican brand."

• Hakeem Jeffries (13:34): "Every single one of those districts, there's now a target on the backs of those House Republicans."

Jeffries' analysis suggests that the Wisconsin loss is part of a larger trend undermining Republican influence.

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Elon Musk's Statements and Public Perception

Elon Musk is portrayed as a controversial figure whose attempts to influence elections are met with widespread criticism. His statements on the significance of the Supreme Court race and the fate of humanity reflect a dramatic overreach that the podcast views as detrimental to democratic institutions.

• Elon Musk (14:56): "This election will determine the fate of humanity in Wisconsin."

• Elon Musk (15:44): "Humanity is dying."

The podcast critiques these statements, framing them as evidence of Musk's inappropriate involvement in political processes.

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Conclusion and Implications

The MeidasTouch Podcast concludes that the Wisconsin Supreme Court election serves as a crucial indicator of the current political climate. The defeat of MAGA Republicans, despite substantial funding, signifies a rejection of oligarchic influence and a reaffirmation of democratic principles. The hosts express optimism that this trend will continue to erode the Republican Party's standing, as evidenced by narrow races in traditionally safe districts.

• Host/Commentator (17:16): "The tide is turning. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers."

The episode underscores the importance of protecting democratic institutions from financial manipulation and celebrates the resilience of voters in upholding fair governance.

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Final Thoughts

This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast offers a critical examination of the intersection between money and politics, highlighting the significant implications of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. By incorporating firsthand reactions, expert analysis, and direct quotes, the podcast provides listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing American democracy and the ongoing battle against oligarchic influence.

Transcript

[Host or Commentator]

MAGA Republicans are not exactly coping well with their massive defeat in Wisconsin for the vacant Supreme Court seat, as we called the race last night. Judge Susan Crawford, the Democratic aligned pro democracy candidate, went on to defeat the MAGA Doge candidate, Brad Schimmel, who was propped up. Schimmel was by tens of millions of MAGA Musk, Doge money and the entire MAGA machinery. The pro democracy candidate, Judge Crawford, a law and order, no nonsense judge, a former prosecutor, went on to win that critical race in the vacant Supreme Court seat, tipping the scales of the Supreme Court so that the Democrats will have control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And it's a critical victory because as I mentioned before, the gerrymandering cases before the court that the MAGA Republicans trying to unlawfully gerrymander Wisconsin will be as such that now you'll have I think a accurate map in Wisconsin, a real map, what it always should be. And I think that will also mean less seats for the MAGA Republican Congress members. So the MAGA Republicans trying to justify this loss after pouring all of their resources and it's clearly a repudiation of Trump and Musk and Doge, but they're refusing to admit that. So they brought on CNN MAGA Republican former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, who's just been an absolute disaster. And so he tries to say this isn't about Musk, it's not about his money. Can we talk about George Soros and J.D. pritzker and Reid Hoffman and it's like what are you talking about? Those people didn't give anywhere near what the money that Elon Musk was doing. Elon Musk was handing out million dollar checks to people and telling people if you post photos of yourselves next to voting locations, but don't get too close because it may be illegal that he would give you, just give you $20 or $100 or whatever. Many people talking about how Musk's voting pay for play scheme itself could potentially be criminal. Here's Walker on cnn. Watch this.

[Scott Walker]

So do you think that was compelling?

[Political Analyst]

I think it's interesting tactic. It's a little Saul Linsky ish in the sense that you've got George Soros and J.D. pritzker and Reid Hoffman and all these billionaires who've spent far more than Musk did in this and now pointing and say, well wait a minute, he spent.

[Scott Walker]

I don't think they spent on this. They didn't.

[Political Analyst]

Well, collectively if you look at all the money from outside that was given to her, again, 77% of it came from out of state. Only 15% came from Schimmel. And collectively a number of the analysis.

[Scott Walker]

I'm just saying like in terms of the money from individual Pritzker, if you.

[Political Analyst]

Look at the whole outside money that came from out of the state, clearly.

[Scott Walker]

But you don't think it was a referendum on Musk at all though?

[Political Analyst]

Oh, I think it had a part of it, I think a lot of different issues.

[Host or Commentator]

I think then you had all of the kind of right wing panelists like Jennings on CNN and you know, he's like, you know, actually I think the Schimmel campaign was really underfunded and you know, I think Elon Musk helped out. I think Elon Musk gave this a boost. That's what happened. That's what the MAGA Republicans and their propaganda mouthpieces like Scott Jennings are saying right now here. Play this clip. Scott, do you think this in Wisconsin was referenced on Musk?

[Brad Schimmel]

Well, I can look at it from another direction. I think the Schimmel campaign was really struggling both financially and just in terms of traction before Musk got involved. He may have actually, you know, given whatever boost he had late, but it didn't solve for the issue that the Republicans have, which are these low propensity voters and trying to get them to turn out for things that are not Donald Trump. You heard Elon Musk, I think correctly, try to tie a vote in the Supreme Court race to much larger, you know, macro political issues. But it wasn't enough. And so that is an equation the Republicans have to solve for. I don't think it's going to be an issue in 28. But look, you got a midterm between now and then. It will be an issue in these midterms and that's something the party strategists are going to have to deal with.

[Host or Commentator]

And you had other MAGA Republicans on the panels last night saying, you know, the issue really was that this was a low turnout election. And because Republicans are the working class party now, you need to have more people turn out. Well, you're not the working class. You're the party of the oligarchs. What are you talking about? Also, as it was pointed out in this clip, it was a high turnout election. How do you know a MAGA Republican's lying? They open up their mouth. Play the clip.

[Scott Walker]

Definitely waiting. You know what else matters? What else matters? Turnout patterns. Democrats today are the party of the hyper educated and the elites and the wealthy. They turn out more in small turnout elections. It's just a Fact that Republicans are a working class party now, we need massive turnout to win. It flips political conventional wisdom on its head. But that's why we're high tonight.

[Host or Commentator]

We're going to.

[Scott Walker]

We're going to. But I know what you're saying. Wisconsin turnout is typically better than most places. Right. But it still was a spring election. It's still not presidential level turnout.

[Host or Commentator]

Now I'll show you Brad Schimmel's concession speech. The mood was grim and sober. Brad Schimmel in his concession speech did not talk about psychologically torturing eight year olds. That's one of his kind of main talking points when he was going around the state. He talks about, I psychologically tortured my eight year old daughter. But here he is conceding. Play this clip around. Too bad.

[Brad Schimmel]

And we're not gonna pull this off. So thank you guys from the bottom of my heart.

[Host or Commentator]

Bye bye, Brad. Bye bye. You know, Brad Schimmel dressed up as Donald Trump for Halloween. Brad Schimmel would go to those MAGA boat parties with like Trump T shirts and be like, I love two things, Jesus and Donald Trump. Ridiculous. He was legit, Literally. The doge puppet, like this guy would have destroyed Wisconsin. So it's fortunate the pro democracy candidate went. Here's another clip of of Schimmel's concession. Play this clip.

[Brad Schimmel]

So when I set out on this journey, it wasn't what I wanted to do. I mean, all of you've heard me say this a thousand times. I didn't want to do this, but I knew it was important and I knew I had to put my all in.

[Host or Commentator]

Now let me take you inside the room of Judge Susan Crawford. The mood there, of course, happy, relieved, excited. The fact that Democr. A big win for democracy there and a big win, by the way, for Judge Susan Crawford. And as she said, this was about the richest man in the world, this oligarch, Elon Musk, trying to buy the Supreme Court for other oligarchs. And she goes, we won. Play this clip.

[Judge Susan Crawford]

Someone who watches out for people. But I've got to tell you, as a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I'd be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin. And we won.

[Host or Commentator]

Here Judge Susan Crawford talks about how Wisconsin fended off this massive attack against democracy from these fascist forces. Play this clip.

[Judge Susan Crawford]

So today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

Yeah.

[Judge Susan Crawford]

That'S right. Our fair elections and our Supreme Court. And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.

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[Host or Commentator]

Free dessert and then throughout the day as well. I guess the talking point that the MAGA Republicans get, you know, they get there. They get their talking points. Representative Brian Steele says, you know, you're talking about Elon. I don't know why, I don't know why I do that voice that he sounds nothing like that. But he goes, he goes, can we talk about Soros, please? Because Soros is the one who poured millions of dollars in. And it's like there's no comparison to what Musk is doing and what other random liberal wealthy people are doing. Like, Musk is in a whole other league. Like, what are you talking about? And Musk went there. He wore the, he wore the, he wore the, he wore the cheese on his. He wore a cheese head in Green Bay. Here. First, play this clip of Brian Steele.

[Political Analyst]

But it shouldn't be lost on your viewers that George Soros has poured millions of dollars in. And the Democratic governor of Illinois, the state to the south of Wisconsin, has also poured millions in. Why? Because the left wants to drive forward a radical agenda in the state of Wisconsin. We're concerned about parental rights, school choice, voter integrity. And that is why in Wisconsin we're working so hard to get Brad Shimmel on the court.

[Rachel Maddow]

I looked at the numbers when it comes to George Soros. He's donated $2 million to the Wisconsin State Democratic Party this cycle. Just by comparison, you're looking at $19.

[Judge Susan Crawford]

Million more than $19 million for Elon.

[Rachel Maddow]

Musk and affiliated groups is why I specifically about that.

[Host or Commentator]

Dude, this was literally, this was literally Elon Musk over the weekend wearing the cheese head. Play this clip. Oh, can I play that? Can I play this for you? Rachel Maddow. I like the way we called it last night on the Midas Touch Network. As soon as the election was the results were and we, we were able to call it thanks to decision headquarters as well. But Rachel Maddow did a great call. This was the moment that Judge Susan Crawford won on Maddow Hat tip to Rachel Maddow. So great. Play this clip.

[Rachel Maddow]

Brad Schimmel that has included Elon Musk pouring tens of millions of dollars into this race on behalf of Schimmel and also giving out million dollar checks to voters. Well, here's where we are as of this hour. Here is our latest results. NBC News, right this moment is projecting a winner in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. NBC News projects at this hour that Susan Crawford is the projected winner in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. This is a remarkable, remarkable outcome. We've got just 47% of the vote in. But you see, that is a, that is what appears, what appeared to me before we got the call to be a clear lead for Susan.

[Host or Commentator]

You know, a big day for Democrats overall. I think a big day for Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries. If this keeps up, I think you're going to be seeing Democratic speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries very soon. Here he was on Lawrence O'Donnell. And by the way, I'm still a big, I'm a big Lawrence O'Donnell fan. It's good to have even people like Lawrence on msnbc. He's one of the good ones. Play this clip.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

It's time for them to walk away from this unelected, unpopular, unhinged and un American billionaire puppet master Elon Musk was just rejected decisively by the voters of Wisconsin. He tried to spend his unlimited resources to buy a state Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin and it failed spectacularly. The voters rejected Donald Trump and they rejected Elon Musk and they rejected the rapidly deteriorating Republican brand.

[Host or Commentator]

And here is Hakeem Jeffries again. Let's play it.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

One point, Lawrence. That should have my Republican colleagues quaking in their boots in the Florida 6 race, which was a Trump +30 district where the margin was cut in half. And we'll see where it ultimately lands, but we know at minimum was cut in half to around 15 or 16 points. There are 60 Republicans in the House of Representatives who currently represent districts where Trump did worse than 15 or 16 points. And every single one of those districts, there's now a target on the backs of those House Republicans.

[Host or Commentator]

As our editor in chief, Ron Filipkowski explains, Elon Musk wore the cheesehead hat in Wisconsin. He spent $20 million. He paid people to sign petitions, he paid people to canvas, he did million dollar giveaways, a rally, TV interviews. But I guess people in Wisconsin didn't appreciate an oligarch trying to buy their civil liberties. I guess not. Remember what Elon Musk said, that this election will determine the fate of humanity in Wisconsin while trying to buy the election. Well, here's the clip just to remind you. Let's play it.

[Elon Musk]

It's just how important it is. They think it's, well, it's just, you know, some kind of judicial thing that's not that important. But it actually, what they're doing, what's happening on Tuesday is a vote for the which party controls the U.S. house of Representatives. That is why it is so significant. And whichever party controls the House.

[Host or Commentator]

It.

[Elon Musk]

To a significant degree controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization. So it's like, I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it's going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will. Yeah.

[Host or Commentator]

Or, or then Elon went on Hannity and talked about humanity dying. Here, play this clip.

[Elon Musk]

Humanity is dying.

[Host or Commentator]

The last clip I'm going to show you, though, I think is also showing you who this Trump regime really is. And you have Stephen Miller here giving you his view about what a judicial system should look like. In other words, no judicial system is how he feels about it. Because what are you going to do? You're going to give these people who are accusing of crimes trials with communist judges? You're going to expect that they all do. They do trials with communism judges. Stephen Miller arguing there's something called due process. There's due process in the United States of America. That's what we do. We give people process. If they're bad, the law, we should impose law and order to the fullest extent possible. But I don't want Donald Trump saying, oh, you, I think you're a gang member, you're a gang member, you're this, you go to concentration. That's not our system, Stephen. If you like systems like that, go to Russia, go to North Korea go to those systems. Here's Stephen Miller.

[Scott Walker]

Let's play it in this country. And now they say they have the temerity to say that every single invader that Joe Biden let in should get their own individual judicial trial before they're deported. One at a time, each one gets a million dollar trial in front of a communist judge to decide whether or not we can send them home. How about hell no. How about we pick them up and we get them out of this country so they can't hurt anyone else?

[Host or Commentator]

Well, there you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Good night for democracy. And as you heard, by the way, what Hakeem Jeffrey said, even though the Democrats didn't win in Florida 6th and Florida's 1st, those were plus 30, plus 33 Trump districts. The gap was narrowed by like 20 points. It's too bad the Democratic candidates didn't win there. It was close. It was close races in areas that should never be close. The tide is turning. The tide is turning. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth over lies [e-mail] touch.com all 100% USA union made.